A common goal amongst e-commerce retailers is to provide relevant search results in response to search queries for products and/or services. Potential consumers may submit such queries to in order to compare products or services, learn more about products or services, or make a purchase.
Potential consumers typically expect relevant results to their search queries, even if such results do not contain all of the actual query terms submitted in the query. For example, search query terms may include a brand name of a product or service, a product quantity, a product or service type, or other details that may not appear on an e-commerce page for the product or service.
Such additional terms may be considered nonessential because relevant products or services that satisfy the searcher's intended query can be identified by ignoring such terms. Often, consumers include such nonessential terms in a search query, but would still be satisfied with search results that do not include any or all such additional search query terms.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding components throughout the several views of the drawings. Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present disclosure.